Category: Solar

First Solar Falls on Concerns About Panel-Reliability Issues

First Solar Inc., the world’s biggest maker of thin-film panels, fell the most in five weeks after the company said as many as 232,000 panels in the field may need to be replaced.

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Solar

Powering Half the World with Wind by 2030

Last year, nearly 200,000 wind turbines met 2.5 percent of global energy needs. These numbers are impressive, but wind energy has the potential to pack an even bigger punch — according to a new study, wind could power half the world with clean energy…

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Wind

First Contracted SpaceX Resupply Mission Launches with NASA Cargo to Space Station

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket carrying its Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:35 p.m. EDT Sunday, beginning NASA’s first contracted cargo delivery flight, designated SpaceX…

Posted: October 7, 2012 in Space

Energy Storage: Q4 2012 Winners and Losers

In late June I wrote a forward looking article that identified several companies in my energy storage and vehicle electrification group that I expected to perform well or perform poorly during the third quarter. Since short-term market changes are noto…

Posted: October 5, 2012 in Storage

NASA and International Partners Approve Year-Long Space Station Stay

NASA and its international partners have announced an agreement to send two crew members to the International Space Station on a one-year mission designed to collect valuable scientific data needed to send humans to new destinations in the solar system…

Posted: October 5, 2012 in Space

NASA’s Swift Satellite Discovers A New Black Hole In Our Galaxy

NASA’s Swift satellite recently detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.

Posted: October 5, 2012 in Space

NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Prepares to Study Martian Soil

NASA’s Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis.

Posted: October 4, 2012 in Space

NASA’s Infrared Observatory Measures Expansion of Universe

Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have announced one of the most precise measurements yet of the Hubble constant, or the rate at which our universe is stretching apart.

Posted: October 3, 2012 in Cosmology